While I lingered, thoughtfully,
for a moment, half in disappointment, half in anger, and
with my back leaning against the rock, I fancied I heard
a rustling, as of the leaves and branches of underwood,
on that part which projected like a canopy, far above
the abyss. I bent my eye eagerly and fixedly on the spot
whence the sound proceeded, and presently could distinguish
the blue sky appearing through an aperture, to which was,
the instant afterwards, applied what I conceived to be
a human face. No sooner, however, was it seen than
withdrawn; and then the rustling of leaves was heard
again, and all was still as before.
"Why did my evil genius so will it," resumed Wacousta,
after another pause, during which he manifested deep
emotion, "that I should have heard those sounds and seen
that face? But for these I should have returned to my
companions, and my life might have been the life--the
plodding life--of the multitude; things that are born
merely to crawl through existence and die, knowing not
at the moment of death why or how they have lived at all.
But who may resist the destiny that presides over him
from the cradle to the grave? for, although the mass may
be, and are, unworthy of the influencing agency of that
Unseen Power, who will presume to deny there are those
on whom it stamps its iron seal, even from the moment of
their birth to that which sees all that is mortal of them
consigned to the tomb? What was it but destiny that
whispered to me what I had seen was the face of a woman?
I had not traced a feature, nor could I distinctly state
that it was a human countenance I had beheld; but mine
was ever an imagination into which the wildest improbability
was scarce admitted that it did not grow into conviction
in the instant.
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